Stop the carp, start the corps: editorial

Sen. Debbie Stabenow, a Michigan Democrat, should be congratulated for putting the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers on notice that carp take precedence over complacency. Her proposed Stop Asian Carp amendment to the omnibus spending bill would deliver the boot to that indolent bureaucracy.

The corps wants a five-year window to study the logistics of a permanent physical separation between the Great Lakes and Mississippi River basins. That's too long to wait for a separation that's the only sure way to protect the lakes' fishing and tourism industries from an invasion of bighead and silver carp.

Stabenow's bill -- co-sponsored by Democratic colleagues from a number of Great Lakes states, including Sen. Sherrod Brown of Ohio -- would cut that time down to a sensible 18 months.